Surgery To Assist Hearing Postponed For Deaf Child

BOYNTON BEACH — Doctors have decided preschooler Tia Clemmons must learn to communicate better in her silent world before she is given the chance to join the hearing one.

A team of audiologists, psychologists and surgeons who last week evaluated Tia for an experimental hearing device have decided she is not yet ready for the surgery.

Doctors at the Riley Children`s Hospital at the University of Indiana Medical Center in Indianapolis, where Tia was tested last week, believe the 4-year-old should become more proficient in sign language before she could be considered for their program.

``Tia qualifies as far as her hearing loss is concerned,`` said hospital spokeswoman Pam Perry. ``But she is deficient in some of the language skills our doctors feel all of our candidates need.``

The hospital has not eliminated Tia from their consideration altogether, however. She and her mother, Loretta, have six months to improve Tia`s sign language skills. At the end of six months, Tia will return to the hospital for a second evaluation.

``If she has developed the skills, she would be considered an excellent candidate,`` Perry said.

Tia lost virtually all of her hearing to spinal meningitis when she was 18 months old. She has only 5 percent hearing in her right ear and 15 percent in her left ear.

Loretta Clemmons said she was at first disappointed at the hospital`s decision but said she realized ``I just have to have faith and work with her.

``I don`t think there are going to be any problems. Tia`s a bright little girl and I think we`ll be able to get her language skills up to par.``

Tia`s sign language skills need to improve so that she could adequately communicate with therapists and doctors in the six-month therapy and rehabilitation which would follow the surgery, Perry said.

``The children must be able to understand what`s happening to them,`` she said.

The surgical procedure Tia was being considered for is known as a cochlea implant. It allows people with profound hearing losses, people who cannot benefit from a more conventional hearing device, to hear in a manner different from others, according to Perry.

If Tia did have the operation, physicians would place a magnetized disk under the skin behind her ear.

A second disk, connected to a powerful microphone and amplification device which Tia would wear, would be attatched outside the skin behind her ear.

The outside disk would then transfer vibrations to the inside disk and bypass the dead auditory nerves in Tia`s ear.

The device has been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for adults, but is still considered an experimental procedure for children, according to Perry. The IU Medical Center is one of seven institutions in the country that is allowed to perform the cochlea implant on youngsters, she said. Since receiving the go-ahead from the FDA two years ago, the center has fitted eight or nine children with the device.

Although Tia`s sign language skills are less developed than other deaf children her age, Perry said that can be changed.

``Everyone here who participated in her evaluation think she is a very bright little girl and will have no problem in improving her communication skills,`` Perry said.

Loretta Clemmons said she will be in touch with hospital personnel bi- monthly. Fund-raising efforts that have been started by the Clemmons` church, the New Christian Life Church in Boynton Beach, will continue.

``Even if Tia isn`t selected, the money can be used by another child who could receive the surgery,`` Loretta Clemmons said.